The EncouragerThe EncouragerA publication of the Hillsboro Mennonite Brethren Church March / April 2016

“Think about ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds.” (Heb. 10:24)

The other day Iwas fishing in

my little two-manbass boat when sud-denly I noticed themotor was losingpower. The boatwent slower andslower to the pointthat I had to paddlemy way back to

shore. I made it back before the bat-tery ran completely out of juice, but itwas in desperate need of a recharge.

My experience in my boat can bethe situation in which we find our-selves when it comes to our Christianwalk. We can find ourselves runningon empty, or low batteries, barely feel-ing like we’re making it through eachday. At times we feel like we are run-ning on empty or that our battery iscompletely out of charge.

How do we keep that from happen-ing? That’s what our next sermonseries, “Refuel,” is going to address.We are going to look into God’s Wordto see what we can do to keep ourtanks full and our batteries chargedwhen it comes to living for Jesus.

I hope you will join us each Sun-day morning at 10:40 a.m. for thisfour-week series. Also, don’t forget toinvite someone to come with you sothey can learn about how to keeptheir lives refueled as well.

—Pastor Brian

Losing power?

An Inside LookAn Inside Look

Pastor Brian

CelebratingCHANGE!

Easter at HMBC - See Page 2

Sermon seriesfor April!

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Resurrection Sunday at HMBC was atime to celebrate that “Easter Changes

Everything.” This was particularly shownthrough four testimonies.

Before his baptism, Dylan Wiensshared how his adoption into a Christianfamily gave him a strong foundation offaith that grew in strength last year atnational youth conference. He wishes topursue Christ with all his heart.

We heard from Gordon and JudyHiebert as they told us how abundantlyfaithful God has been to them. ThoughGordon was diagnosed with Parkinson’sdisease in 1992, they said, “God waspreparing us, going before us and prepar-ing the details of our lives.” Gordonenjoyed creating and selling Western andSouthwestern art after he was forced togive up farming.

Divine appointments, at just the righttime, brought them to experts in the fieldfor medical treatments. In recent days,they realized they had used Parkinson’sas an excuse, so they began to pray toopen themselves to whatever God has forthem. Gordon is currently using his timein the privilege of praying for his kidsand grandkids. They reminded us of theverse in Psalm 94:18: “When I said, ‘Myfoot is slipping,’ your love, O Lord sup-ported me.”

Gordon and Jeanie Reiswig sharedabout their journey of grace and love,even on their darkest days raising theirboys. They learned that God was in con-

Easter testimonies highlight God’spower to change and sustain

The Easter message came through testimonies by (from left) Judy and Gordon Hiebert, Gordon and Jeanie Reiswig and Jane King.

trol. He arranged forjust the right song andat the right time. Heprotected their car inan accident. He provid-ed friends who couldhold them up in prayer.

To this day, they seethat God is in controleven when they can’tsee the outcome. Theyreminded us ofProverbs 3:5-6: “Trust inthe Lord with all yourheart and lean not onyour own understand-ing; in all your waysacknowledge him, andhe will make your pathsstraight.” Also, Philip-pians 4:6-7: “Do not beanxious about any-thing, but in every-thing, by prayer and petition, with thanks-giving, present your requests to God. Andthe peace of God, which transcends allunderstanding will guard your hearts andyour minds in Christ Jesus.”

Jane King shared her side of her mar-riage reconciliation with Larry. She talkedof forgiveness, repentance and restora-tion. Though Jane ran from her life, aseries of divine interactions created a pullto find herself, and rediscover God beforeit was too late.

She began to read through the Bible

and came to 1 John 4:8: “Whoever does notlove does not know God, because God islove.” She finally realized and believedthat God is love. She ran outside andlooked to the heavens and cried out to Godand He came upon her in force and in loveand life flowed back into her. She was con-victed, confessed, forgiven and waschanged.

Now, years later and reconciled to herfamily and her marriage, she continues tomarvel at God’s goodness and grace.

—Jamie Driggers

High schooler Dylan Wiens was baptized by Pastor Sara JoWaldron; he expressed gratitude to God for his adoption intoa family with a strong faith foundation.

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Youth in MissionYouth in Mission

HMBC teenpreparing forThailand callBY SARA JO WALDRON

In October I had the incredible opportuni-ty to participate in a vision trip to Thai-

land with a group of youth pastors fromthe Midwest. The hope was that we wouldreturn home to call and equip a team toreturn. I came home with that very goal inmind. I was so deeply moved by how theHoly Spirit was at work in Thailand that Iwas eager for some of our students and fel-low believers to witness it. I also had myeyes opened to how encouraging it is foroverseas missionaries to have individualsfrom “home” visit them and become famil-iar with their lives there.

So we made a great effort to recruit ateam, but it seemed things continuouslyfell through. Scheduling didn’t line up;leaders felt called elsewhere, and so on. Itwas discouraging. I began asking God ifhe even wanted a team to go this year. Iwanted clarity as to whether the enemywas trying to distract and discourage mefrom my pursuit, or if God’s will was infact doing just that.

Within one student in particular, sopho-more Abby Sechrist, I could see the HolySpirit leading and I struggled to trust thather church family could be a part of thatjourney. How foolish of me! I kept talkingwith her and felt so disappointed when Ihad to give her the news that a team fromHMBC would not be going this year. It feltlike I had failed the vision and failed her.

We talked about how it would be anoption for her to travel solo and beassigned to a team of people from otherchurches, but naturally she seemed hesi-tant. Imagine my surprise when she askedme to be a reference on her application. Iwant you to hear from her a little abouthow God’s will unfolded in her life:

* * *ABBY: The past few months have made

me grow so much in my walk with Christ.I always knew I wanted to go on a missiontrip, but I didn’t think God would want meto do it so soon. There was a trip at schoolthat a lot of my friends were going on toEurope; I wanted to go and I didn’t knowwhy at the time, but I just had a gut feelingI shouldn’t go.

I talked to Pastor Sara Jo about somemission opportunities that would be avail-able to me. She mentioned that our churchwas sending a team to Thailand. I was soexcited to go. I just planned to go with ateam and kind of “tag along.”

At SDYC in November, I went to a work-shop that was sponsored by MB Mission.Long-time Thailand missionary KarenSanchez was speaking, even though shewasn’t scheduled to. She was talking aboutThailand and how the harvest was plenti-ful but the workers were few. She kept say-ing how if even one of you decided to be amissionary this would be worth it.

I just felt a stirring in my heart saying,“Yeah, you have to go.” Something shesaid specifically moved me: In the army, iftheir head general dies, his regime followshis last order. Jesus’ last order was, “Goand make disciples of all nations.” I want-ed to obey his final order.

A few months later, Sara Jo told me ourchurch was not sending a team. I was real-ly bummed, but also felt I was releasedfrom the call. There was no way I wasgoing halfway around the world with abunch of people I didn’t know.

My mom encouraged me to pray andthink if it was a closed door or a biggerstep of faith. I had already crossed it off inmy mind, but I would hear songs, or Pas-tor Brian’s sermons, and I couldn’t shake

this tugging in my heart. My mentor hadgone to Thailand before on Action andTrek. Every reason I gave to not go shewould counter with a reason that mademy reason invalid.

I thought about it and came to the con-clusion that this is what God wanted me todo and I couldn’t run away from it any-more. So I am stepping out in faith, butthis is so far outside my comfort zone. Inever go anywhere without a group offriends or my family. The truth is I’m ter-rified, but I know this is what I’m sup-posed to do.

* * *God is so faithful, so good, and so per-

fect. I trust He has incredible plans forsending Abby to Thailand this summer. Iam hoping it involves returning and help-ing me call and equip a team for summer2018, which will be the summer after shegraduates high school. We will have to seehow God’s will unfolds for that, but in themeantime all is not lost with HMBC send-ing a team to Thailand this year. It turnedout that God has not called us to send ateam, but to send an individual. I believeGod has called HMBC to send Abby.

Abby is moving forward in obedienceto her Savior and needs the support of herbrothers and sisters in Christ. Some of uswill be called by God to support her finan-cially, and many, if not all of us, are calledto support her in prayer. Pray that all ofthe logistics to come together smoothly forher trip: fundraising, vaccines, travel doc-uments, etc. Pray for the team that will beforming. God’s hand has been moving andmany churches are not sending full teams,but individuals just like us. Abby will begrouped with three to five other individu-als from all over the U.S. and Canada. Prayfor unity, chemistry, and bonding.

The total trip will cost around $4,000;Abby needs to raise 75 percent of the cost.My hope is that God will call many to joinAbby in obedience by financially support-ing her trip. It is an incredible privilegeand joy to partner with long and short-term missionaries as they step out infaith. Any time we come alongside some-one who is following Jesus and help themto do that, we become an important partof God’s story in their lives.

If you sense that God is calling you topray specifically for Abby’s journey pleaseemail her at abbysechrist@yahoo.com soshe can send you updates and specificrequests as her trip approaches.

If you feel God leading you to givefinancially, please pick up a support formfrom the church office. If you have ques-tions about how to support Abby finan-cially, contact her or Pastor Sara Jo.

KEY DATES FOR ABBY’STHAILAND MISSION n June 24-31 - Trainingn July 1-12 - Assignment in Thailandn July 13-16 - Debriefing n July 17 - Return to Hillsboro

Abby: “The truth is I’m terrified, but Iknow this is what I’m supposed to do.”

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It was Thursdaynight, the night

they celebrate theannual Passovermeal, the night Jesuswould be handedover to be crucified.

Jesus and his dis-ciples met in a guesthouse to eat together.In the middle of this

meal, Jesus stopped and began wash-ing the disciples’ feet. The owner ofthe house or his servant would nor-mally do this, but the disciples werehaving this supper in a guest house.So there was no host for the meal.

One of them should have volun-teered to wash the others’ feet, as wascustomary, so people would eat withclean feet. (Remember they wore san-dals on dirt roads and they ate lyingdown on their side, so clean feet wereimportant.)

Jesus waited for the disciples toshow humility and put others beforethemselves. However, none of themdid. So he got up and began washingtheir feet. Peter was shocked. He said,“You shouldn’t be washing our feet!You are our Lord!”

But Jesus said, “I’m giving you anexample to follow. I’m the teacher, yet Iserved you. You aren’t more impor-tant than your teacher, so you shoulddo what I did and serve each other.”

This is the kind of love Jesus hasfor us. He is so much better than us,but he still washes our feet. He servesus. You know what? He even washedJudas’ feet! And he knew Judas wasgoing to bring the religious leaders tocapture Jesus that very night.

What do you think that means foryou? Imagine for a second that you areJesus washing Judas’ feet. Would youget down and serve someone whowanted to hurt you? This is the exam-ple that Jesus gave us to follow. Loveour enemies. Love everyone and servethem, no matter what they do to us.No one is beneath our love. “Lord,give us the humility to pick up a toweland wash basin feet with you.”

—Pastor Jeremy

How’s yourThursday going?

Moment with MatlockMoment with Matlock Men’s MinistryMen’s Ministry

The annual Kansas Mennonite ReliefSale is April 8-9 at the state fair-

grounds in Hutchinson. During the sale,Mennonite churches throughout Kansascome together to raise money for Mennon-ite Central Committee and its mission “toshare God’s love and compassion for all inthe name of Christ by responding to basichuman need and working for peace andjustice.”

The sale raises more than $500,000 eachyear. Many activities happen during thesale weekend. The focal points are thequilt auction and general auction begin-ning Saturday morning at 9 a.m. A varietyof other experiences are also available,including children's activities. Bakedgoods and traditional “Mennonite” foodsare available both days of the sale.

Hillsboro Mennonite Brethren Churchis asked specifically to donate 60 pies, 70dozen zwieback, seven dozen cookies and20 volunteers for verenike making April 5at the Marion County Fairgrounds.

Additionally, our church includes$2,000 in its annual budget to support thesale. The Social Concerns Committeehosts a Fellow ship Meal to support thesale and works with the youth to collectloose change during three Sunday morn-ing services. These two offerings com-bined to raise more than $2,600 last year.

Last year, one quilt made by womenfrom our church sold for $6,750 and otherquilt items sold added up to $2,000.

Come join us at the Kansas MennoniteRelief Sale in Hutchinson April 8 and 9.

—Social Concerns Committee

Volunteers preparing for relief sale

Those in attendance were not disap-pointed once again at the annual

Valentine Extravaganza. The men’s min-istry team did another outstanding job ofputting together another wonderfulevening of fellowship, food, and entertain-ment.

After a glorious and sunny Februaryafternoon many of us had the opportunityto transport ourselves from rural centralKansas to the canals of Venice, Italy,thanks in no small part to the artistic tal-ents of Kim and Delora Kaufman.

This event is a huge undertaking, andthe team spent hours upon hours withmeetings, decorating, planning, decorat-ing, meetings, decorating…. Well, you getthe idea. Each year seems to be better thanthe previous one, which builds the antici-pation as to how anything could improveon last year’s program and meal. But thisyear truly did live up to all the anticipa-tion.

As always, the children were well enter-tained and fed along with their adult coun-terparts. A special shout-out goes to RobScott and his group of helpers in thekitchen and “Venicians” consisting ofhigh school and college students to assistwith the serving and clean-up needs.

To prepare a scrumptious meal for 400-plus people is quite a feat, but Rob wasable to pull it off marvelously. He trulydoes have a culinary talent for which we

are grateful.Then came the entertainment by come-

dian Dennis Swanberg. We were given asmall taste of his wit and humor eachSunday morning for four weeks prior tothe event, but that didn’t come close towhat the final outcome was in terms ofhis mastery of impersonations and hilari-ous outlook on life in general.

His central message was to lighten upand view life’s obstacles in a less stressfulway, and embrace the ability to laugh atourselves through life’s challenges. Den-nis’s view and perspective on life in gener-al is remarkable, and tickled the funnybone of each in attendance.

Thank-you to Ron Duerksen and theentire Men’s Ministry Team as theycapped the year’s events with a wonderfulopportunity to reach out to the communi-ty with a full calendar of events to meetthe interest levels of everyone.

But there is no rest, as the spring activi-ties are about to begin with the eventscheduled for May 1 with the Biker Boyskick-starting the new year with a ride toTopeka to participate in a ride for Men-nonite Central Committee. Watch for fur-ther details and start thinking of people inyour sphere of influence who might enjoyan afternoon of fishing, a round of golf,maybe some target shooting, motorcycleriding, or just hanging out with each otherenjoying God’s creation. —Glenn Thiessen

‘Extravaganza’ lives up to billing

Pastor Jeremy

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Hein family finally comes together as seven The Hein family met Kathy and Bo in Washington, D.C., March 23. Kathy and Bo werelegally adopted by Kerry and Rachel Hein in June 2013 and the Heins were planning tobring them home in October of that year when the Democratic Republic of Congostopped allowing children to leave. This February, Congo began to issue exit letters andKathy and Bo were able to come home. They were brought to Washington, D.C., by anescort. Their first few days as a family of seven have been full of giggles and exploring,parents say. Please pray for them as they all make this transition.

Kids ConnectionKids Connection

Original staffersteps in to leadEDITOR: Lots of exciting changes are goingon at Kids Connection, so we thought it wastime to get to know who is having all thefun each week. First, we will get to knowthe new interim director, Tiffany Miller.

Tiffany is the only remaining staffmember since opening day in 2008.

Before working at Kids Connection, shewas a para-educator at Hillsboro MiddleSchool. She was excited to join the team atKC because she missed working withyoung children.

Tiffany says her average day is full oflots of fun, kids telling stories and officework. The best part of her job is getting toknow the kids and their families andwatching them grow and learn. Howeverkeeping up on all the paperwork is thehardest part. She shares the story ofattacked by birds on the playground whentrying to take a picture of their nest. Thechildren thought it was quite funny, but

she did not! She feels that the most impor-tant part of her job is putting together les-son plans and Bible stories to help teachchildren about the love of Christ.

When Tiffany is not at work, she is usu-ally spending time at her daughters' activi-ties. She has five daughters, age 17, 13, 11and twin 8-year-olds. However she alsoloves to go to movies and work on herhouse. If she had a week to go on a vaca-tion she and her daughters dream ofgoing to Disney World. Someone famousshe would like to meet is Giada DeLauren-tiis, one of her favorite chefs. If youhaven’t had a chance to meet Tiffany, stopby and introduce yourself.

Tiffany Miller, KC interim director.

BaptismsDylan Wiens, March 27

EngagementsNick Ediger and Lauren Neufeld;

wedding, June 18

DeathsElma Warkentin, Feb. 17

HMBC FAMILY NEWS

A GOOD READBooks you should know about

“Bella’s Gift: How OneLittle Girl TransformedOur Family and Inspireda Nation,” BY RICK AND

KAREN SANTORUM (2015)

This memoir explores what it means toembrace and celebrate the life of each

person and find hope, even in the midst ofpainful challenges.

—Carrol L. Ediger

Fun with lunchand Dr. SeussWe have had lots of fun this last

month at Kids Connection. Twoof our highlights have been the cele-bration of Dr. Seuss’s Birthday andNational Bring Your Lunch to SchoolDay.

We celebrated Dr. Seuss’s birthdayby reading many of his stories andlearning how to be a good friend, fol-low our dreams and try new things. Weinvited our families to join us for ourannual Green Eggs & Ham breakfastand had a great time fellowshipping asa Kids Connec tion family.

On March 10 we seized the opportu-nity to observe one of the more “fun”national holidays by bringing ourlunches to school and daycare. Theweather was fantastic that day, so mostkids and teachers got to enjoy theirlunches on the lawn. It was especiallyneat for our preschool and Pre-Kfriends who don’t normally get to eatlunch with us to stay and enjoy ourtime together. —Tiffany Miller

KC HIGHLIGHTS

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HILLSBORO MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH300 Prairie Pointe, Hillsboro KS 67063

Office phone: 620-947-3144Prayer Line: 620-947-5454

E-mail: hmbc@hillsboromb.comWebsite: hillsboromb.com

LEADERSHIP STAFFBrian Allen, lead pastor

Jeremy Matlock, adult discipleship and assimilation pastor

Bev Vogel, children & family pastorSara Jo Waldron, youth pastor

Bruce Heyen, worship music & choir directorTiffany Miller, Kids Connection interim director

THE ENCOURAGER TEAM Brenda Sechrist, Marilyn Hiebert, Don Ratzlaff

IT’S SPRING! Track season,proms, flowers, green grass,leaves on the trees, gardens,longer days of sunshine! And,

did I mention longer days of sunshine?n Yes, my favorite season of the

year is spring and I don’t mind admit-ting it. I don’t like being cold and I don’tenjoy shortened days of sunshine. But Ithink the thing that I enjoy the mostabout spring is the new life that comesbursting through—almost out ofnowhere. The first morning I saw thedaffodils bursting from the ground onthe west side of our church building, Iknew I had survived another winter—even if we happened to have a few moredays of cold temperatures off and on.

n New life. That’s what we have justcelebrated during the Easter season.Just like the new life we see burstingfrom the ground in the spring, it wasJesus who came bursting out of thetomb! Bursting out to conquer deathand sin forever to give us the opportuni-ty to have a relationship with God forev-er.

I often ask our G5 Kids to quotealoud for me on Sun day mornings aScrip ture that is very familiar to manyof us, John 3:16. “For God so loved theworld that He gave His one and onlySon, that whoever believes in him shallnot perish, but have eternal life.”

We can have a new life! A life forgiv-en of our sin, to stand before God pureand holy.

n This past Easter Sunday our

children, 4-year-olds through sixth grade,joined our adult choir during the morningservice to sing the song, “Thrive.” The mes-sage of this song should remind ourselvesoften that we weren’t just made to survive,we were made to thrive!

A gardener doesn’t just want his or hergarden to survive, but to thrive. A coachdoesn’t just want the team to survive, butto thrive. It reminds me of John 10:10: “Iam come that they might have life, and thatthey might have it more abundantly.” Tohave life more abundantly. Some transla-tions say, “...that they may have it to thefull.”

Jesus doesn’t just want us to live in“survival mode.” Jesus wants us to thrive.He wants us to come to Him. When ourenergy and ideas are depleted, and wefinally realize we can’t do it on our own,that’s when He can give us life “to the full.”It’s His power that works in us!

As we give our lives to Jesus, He giveseternal life as well as strength for each newday. And just think, this may be the daythat we meet Jesus in the air! “After that,we who are still alive and are left will becaught up together with them in the cloudsto meet the Lord in the air. And so we will

be with the Lord forever” (I Thess. 4:17).Let’s encourage one another to thrive! Wehave a great future ahead of us with Jesusas our Lord.

n The G5 Kids! offering during Mis-sion Exploration Station totaled $583.37.This was enough to give three children inJuneau, Alaska, the opportunity to attendthe Bible Camp where Ryan and AngieRegier are ministering.

n Nearly $400 of groceries were givenby the K.I.D. NetWork Wednesday nightkids to the Main Street Ministry Food Bankthis past month.

n K.I.D. NetWork Cele bration Night,the last evening of classes for the year, andVBS registration night is April 27.

n VBS is scheduled for the evenings ofMay 31 and June 1-3. Your VBS team thisyear is Brandi Hein, Erin Beavers, BeckyKlaassen, Larinda Amstutz, Katie Matt andBev Vogel. We covet your prayers. Lists forneeded volunteers and supplies will beposted soon.

n Kids Junior Camp (Southern Dis-trict church camp for students completingfourth through sixth grades) registrationand payment are due in the office to BevVogel by May 9.

With spring, new life comes bursting through

CECLIPS

Our HMBC children, 4-year-olds through sixth grade, joined the adult choir during theEaster service to sing the song “Thrive.”